T w e n t y S i d e d

The Nintendo Wii was lightning in a bottle. I remember it was a hard to find, in demand gift for Christmas one year and then suddenly every household I went to seemed to have one. I have an aunt and uncle who are very staunch Christians that adhere to a mostly closed-off rural lifestyle. They had dial-up internet until the mid 2010s. They’ve never had cable. Yet, they had a flatscreen, a Nintendo Wii, and several games for it.

It was a weird time. Video games went from a begrudgingly accepted, but mildly frowned upon hobby, to something the whole family could get in on. Everyone from grandma to the toddlers could swing the stick around. Needless to say, the barrier for entry was near non-existent. It was a way to bring the family together over something new and fun. I, specifically, have a very fond memory of everyone getting together to play Wii Sports and Guitar Hero 3 one Christmas.

The wii, for all intents and purposes, was an unmitigated success. I should have been in the peak of video game bliss. Only problem was that I hated the Wii’s motion controls. They were imprecise and laggy. Everyone else was having fun waving their hands around and hoping for the best, while I got pissed off because “these games aren’t even hard, the controls just suck.” In fairness to myself here, I wasn’t wrong. Prior to the release of the Motion+ release the system was very hit and miss on its tracking. Also, the Wii didn’t exactly have a long list of heavy-hitting titles for the less casual gamer. There were several rail shooters that were great. I still look back finally at Twilight Princess and Smash Bros. Brawl. But, other than that, the wii games frustrated me more than entertained me. So, I was more than happy to turn my nose up when I noticed just how much shovelware got poured onto the market. Soooooo many minigame collections.

What this all boiled down to is an angsty teenage me refusing to engage with what I considered to be beneath me. Instead of embracing the fun despite the limitations, I chose to be superior. This is something I’ve come to regret. I miss the times where people actually took an interest in one of my hobbies of choice. Sure, I’ve had a taste of that feeling again with VR, but it’s far harder to convince people to take a turn when just starting a game means reconfiguring things for each person who wants to play. Throw on the need I have to avoid Meta’s store like the plague, and you have me lugging my PC back and forth just to maybe convince people to give it a try. It’s simply not the same.

With “Stage Tour” coming soon, I’m hoping that some of that spirit can be rekindled. I’m happy to schlep my PS5 places if it means I can spend an hour or two goofing around with my friends and family and playing what amounts to a complicated game of karaoke. Well, I can always hope anyway.

Please find 2007 me shredding a song on easy cool. It’s very important to him.

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Oh and if you were wondering where the post was last week, I was up to some devious shenanigans. True adventurous nonsense. Some real high stakes buffoonery.

I bought a new phone and forgot to verify that my apps properly transferred over… including my 2FA apps. I had a 3 day anxiety attack while trying to pull things together and took the week off.

Ethan Rodgers